MADRID (Reuters) - Real Madrid will join the complaint filed on Friday by Spanish prosecutors against Barcelona and two of the LaLiga club's ex-presidents over alleged payments to a company owned by a senior refereeing official to influence match results, the club said on Sunday.
The European and Spanish soccer champions called an urgent board meeting to discuss alleged attempts by arch rivals Barcelona to influence referees and decided to take legal action for what they called"serious accusations" by prosecutors.
Barcelona allegedly paid more than 7.3 million euros between 2001 and 2018 to firms owned by Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, who was vice-president of the refereeing committee of the Spanish football association from 1993-2018. A senior Barcelona official told Reuters on Friday that the club had expected the prosecutors' complaint and described it as"nothing more than an absolutely preliminary investigative hypothesis".
In a statement last month, Barca denied wrongdoing, saying they had simply paid an external consultant who supplied them with"technical reports related to professional refereeing", calling it"a common practice among professional football clubs".
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